Low-income households

The spending power of the poorest has fallen by 10 per cent over the last decade and will continue to fall as the basic cost of living continues to rise, according to research commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and reported in The Guardian.

About seven million of Britain’s poorest people will see their spending power fall by a tenth over the next decade because the prices of essentials such as food, fuel and clothing are rising much faster than inflation, according to the research.

The research shows that these households have already seen their spending power reduced by about 10 per cent in the past 10 years. If prices trends continue, they will be nearly a fifth worse off by 2012 than they were in 2000.

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PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.